Mage Proving Grounds
Posted by: Bekons (04/23/2019) * D-Rank Description "Well, I figured since this works still, why not use you kids to use it. Go though the ancient trial room and clear the three rooms. Hit me up if that's too difficult to understand" - Theral Journals Tai Navitus (09/30/2019) Working with my lovely Styx, the minotaur monk that I see sparingly, a short human...with a flaming wizard hat...who is...a psycho. A legitimate. Psycho. He scares me. And that evil crazy spear wielding Monk, with a cleric named Vae’len who I’ve spoken to but never been on a job. Styx has been to this place, a tower that radiates magic. We get ready, and brave the tower as rain starts to pour down on us. The tower is a bit ruined, dilapidated, and seems worn to time...but there is a perfect hole in the wall, as if it had been cut with intense precision, like a water jet. In the center of the room is a large, jet black stone obelisk. A Disintegrate spell. Styx messes with the obelisk, which is...confusing and alien. The crazy flaming wizard hat man detects magic, and between the two of them they can figure it out. Styx takes us through the obelisk, as if melting into it, and we arrive at a new floor. Its super dark, people are crazy, Ravana has a bag of flaming skulls, the room is dark except for a glowing orb. As we prepare to leave, a not ominous at all voice fills the room. And taunts us. The room is lit up, and its well kept as compared to the other tower. You know, except for the rotting corpses playing cards. And...other undead. They are very helpful. And lonely. Sad undead. We head to a waiting room, non-magical for the most part, and I guess this an entrance hall. Styx tells us to prepare, and we do so, Styx and I casting magic to protect our bodies, move us faster, and allow us to see invisibility...it’s mostly him. We see a strange illusion and he calls us new “apprenti”. We discuss how that may or may not have been a word at a time, and we walk through the doors, rotting and broken furniture in the corridor in front us. The strange program walking us through the process is unresponsive and outdated. Styx seems...uneasy, saying the monster’s in this room drained strength with touch. Strostey pulls out a fancy sword and cuts through the magical longsword. We step in and the door shuts behind us as a rumble sounds below us, signaling the start of our trial featuring undeath, burrowing out of the ground, riding something. As we begin the fight, Styx and Strostrey fire magic and arrows, destroying a target I can’t even see. Strostrey empowers one of our party members with divine magic…? The weird mounted combatant jumps on top of us, but Ravana and I dodge as Hageta and Vae’len get knocked down underneath this creature. I try to summon a fist of earth to grab the giant mounted monster, but fail, as Ravana kicks the mountee off of the mount. Who then flies. Vae’len gets up, swings and misses horribly, and heals himself as Hageta also tries to remove himself from underneath the burrowing creature. Hageta begins a flurry of spear thrust, attempting to stun the creature and failing, but following up by goring it and distracting it. The weird flying skeleton monster drains life from Strostrey via touch, and a shade appears from the shadows and tries to attack Val’en and drains his strength, withering him up like a dried grape. Strostrey is a monk maybe? Vae’len is getting the life drained out of him as the monk...cleric tries to attack the mount some more...punching him. I manage to find the source of the strange reanimating magic bringing the shadows back as we kill them, and then use my earthen fist to hold down the strange burrowing monster before Hageta gores it to death with his horns and spear. Which immediately becomes dust and reanimates close to the strange coffin. Ravana and Styx break the coffin, releasing a strange monster ghost, and I get jumped on by the Bullette again. I stand and slash at the creature before using my Misty Step to get far away as the crocodile tries to wreak as much havoc as possible. Hageta tries to stab into the giant monster that Ravana released, stunning it with his spear after Ravana put it down. Strostrey kicks and punches the shades, effectively might I add, and then runs away. What a hoot. Well, until I realize that he makes a perfect target for the bullette, which savages me into unconsciousness. I momentarily get back up before the stupid thing bites me again, wasting a potion from Styx. Styx feeds me another potion as the crocodile and I try to attack this creature while it attempts to bite Strostrey. The crocodile holds it steady and Styx protects me, which is awesome. It kills Strostrey and we finish it off, our cleric reviving Cola and we heal up, the magic of this place enhancing our healing factors. Styx finds a piece of paper in the rubble of the sacraphogus. Oh boy, a spell that lets you summon MORE than one familiar. It looks like just a hallway. Styx warns of us a trapped room, filled with arcane wards and traps. Those of us that can prepare to detect magic and move forward. The assistant program thingy opens up the door for us, somehow. Magic is weird. Styx effortlessly navigates us through the supposedly trapped room. Easy done. A room drops us into another room, filled with roaring, and we seem to be on a demiplane. Made of shadows. Weird. And we prepare our magical magic stuff, Styx turning Strostrey into a creature while he blesses us. A low voice comes from the north, but also all around, steps in the darkness, a figure emerging. Calling us mortals and toys and such. The fight starts before Cola and Styx can enchant each other. Its a giant shadow dragon that casts a dome of force around itself and traps Ravana within, I can’t seem to dispel it as Cola blesses us. Styx tries to dispel the dome as the dragon breaths on our giant t-rex fake wizard and our two monks. Ravana lay’s into it, but can’t force it to drop its hold on the sphere, but he does get knocked prone. Another breath weapon, which I barely stave off, Ravana continues to lay into it, I stab at it as often as I’m able, managing to pierce its scales. Cola heals Hageta, and runs away. I grab Hageta as he goes down again, and teleport away, delivering some wind of death before leaving. Styx is afraid, but saves Ravana with a potion. Styx seems to get crushed only for an illusion to disappear and the real Styx to appear. The dragon breathes down on us, and a lot of us got down. Vae’len is...just dodging, over and over again, and we leave. At least we’re not dead, but...Vae’len is on my shit list now. What a guy. Angry scribbles Mission Failure, 1 pip, Vae’len was gone for the final fight.